folk noir / alt-country / americana

12 MP3 Songs
FOLK: Modern Folk, COUNTRY: Alt-Country

Show all album songs: The Old Fashioned Way Songs


Details:
"Smart, original songs framed by a seductively whimsical sound." - Joseph Blake, Times-Colonist.

"Haunting vocals, strong songwriting." - John Threlfall, Monday Magazine.

"James Kasper's songwriting skills take the listener on a journey with each phrase turned...Layer upon layer of rootsy goodness." - Rob Pingle, 101.9FM CFUV.

"Good lyrics and strong, interesting melodies are hard to find in much of today's music. James Kasper delivers and then some." - Michael Burke, Cordova Bay Entertainment Group Inc.

See also: www.jameskasper.com

James Kasper is expected on Christmas Day of 1970 but arrives fifteen days early, in Victoria BC, his father having driven his mother to St. Joseph's Hospital in a '57 Chevy. Ten years later, just a four and a half hour drive northwest in Ucluelet, James is chosen to attend the Little League Baseball All-Star Try-outs as a first baseman but does not make the team. Two years later, at age twelve, his parents divorce, and shortly thereafter, the assistant coach of his baseball team becomes his stepdad. Around this same time, James begins to write songs, penning them in his own dot-to-dot notation, as he does not play an instrument nor have knowledge of music theory. His first song is called The Ballad of Chester West. Skip ahead four years, he is asked to paint a mural on the wall of his high school. One day, while carrying buckets of paint to the mural, he unknowingly drips paint all the way down the long hallway. His art teacher sees his inadvertent design on the floor and instead of scolding him, she declares, "James, you're artistic even when you're not trying to be!" The mural, an abstract portrait of killer whales, is seen by ten years of students before the wall is torn down during building renovations...In 1993, at age 22, James' landlord teaches him to play guitar. Three years later, in 1996, James meets singer-songwriter Tasja Veil through a "wrong number" and Kasper Veil is born. They spend the next four and a half years in a musical partnership, a collaboration which Chart Magazine calls "perfect coffeehouse music for the soul." In 1997, the duo rehearses with a drummer and bassist in the basement of a retirement home. Kasper Veil releases two albums, Metro Gnome and folk is dead but who's listening, the latter of which charts high across Canada on campus radio. Kasper Veil has the privilege of performing at the same show as the legendary Ray Charles in 1998 for the Variety Club Telethon at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. In 2000, at the end of their first cross-Canada tour, the duo splits and loses contact with each other completely. Three years later, in 2003, performing with his group Nobody Jones in Victoria, Kasper is approached at the end of the first set by a young lady who declares "Your songwriting blows my mind." She does not stay for the second set. Four years later, Kasper releases his debut solo album, "The Old Fashioned Way," which features major contribution from primary collaborator Geoff Howe, as well as from engineer/co-producer/multi-instrumentalist Jude Pelley, in addition to accompaniment by a dozen other special guests. The album's 2nd track, "Happy Texas," is written about 50s pop sensation Buddy Knox, who was the 1st of the rock era to write his own 1 hit ("Party Doll"). Upon hearing that Buddy Knox is in his family tree, Kasper feels it warrants a song. Kasper never meets Knox but his Dad meets him in the restroom of a bar on Vancouver Island where Knox is performing in the early 90s. The opening lyrics of "Happy Texas" are: "Hey Buddy, your Party Doll was my cousin Marilyn, but as you know, not Monroe." In late 2006, just prior to releasing the album, Kasper finds out from Buddy Knox's son Michael Knox that "Dad was never married to a Marilyn, but he was married to a Leanne who had a sister named Marilyn." The genealogical mistake is now permanently documented in the song, as the young Knox tells Kasper: "Never change a lyric. It's how you felt at the time. Dad would have loved the song."